./i-have-an-idea
You have an idea. You can't build it yourself.
That's the most common message in my inbox, and it's the one I like most.
You've been carrying this thing around for months. You've explained it to friends. Maybe you've sketched screens in Figma or clicked something together in a no-code tool. But there's a gap between the thing in your head and something real that people can download, and you don't have the vocabulary to cross it.
The instinct is to find someone who can code and hand them the idea. That's usually the wrong first move, because the idea in your head isn't a spec yet — and if you hand an unfinished idea to a developer, you get an expensive, well-built version of something nobody wants.
This is you if
- You've described your idea ten times and it comes out slightly different every time
- You don't know whether you need an app, a web platform, or neither
- You've been quoted €40k by an agency and have no idea if that's fair
- You're not sure which parts of your idea are essential and which are decoration
- Someone told you to "just build an MVP" and you don't know what that means for your idea
How it works
1. We take the idea apart. One long conversation, no slides. I ask uncomfortable questions: who pays, why now, what happens if nobody shows up. Most ideas shrink by half in this step, and that's the point. The half that survives is the one worth building.
2. I write the shape of it. Not a 40-page spec — a short document with the data model, the core user flows, the stack, and an honest list of what we are deliberately not building in version one. You'll understand every line of it.
3. We build in visible increments. You see something running within the first two weeks. Not a mockup — something on your phone. Every week after that, it does more.
4. It ships. App Store submission, review, the boring parts. I've been through Apple review enough times to know where it bites.
What you get
A working product in the hands of real users. Source code you own, in a repo you control. A data model that doesn't collapse when you add the second feature. And a clear-eyed view of whether the business underneath it actually works — which is sometimes the more valuable output.
What I don't do
I don't build the full vision in one go. If your idea only works with all fourteen features, it isn't an MVP, it's a bet — and I'll tell you that before you spend the money rather than after.
Timeline
Most MVPs run six to twelve weeks from first conversation to submitted build.
FAQ
- How much does it cost to build an MVP?
- It depends almost entirely on scope, and scope is what we settle in the first conversation. A focused MVP with one core loop, authentication and a payment flow is a very different project from a two-sided marketplace. I give a fixed number after we've defined scope, not before — a quote given before scope is a guess dressed up as a number.
- Do I need a technical co-founder?
- Not to get to a working product and first users. You need one when the product has traction and the technical decisions become daily rather than occasional. Plenty of founders reach a funded seed round without one.
- Should I build for iOS, Android, or web first?
- Whichever platform your first hundred users are already on. If you don't know who those hundred people are, that's the question to answer before the platform question.
- What happens after launch?
- You own the code and can take it anywhere. If you'd rather not, I stay on — see technical partner.